100-year-old Blooming Grove dam slated for reconstruction

Sunday

Jul 13, 2014 at 2:00 AM

BLOOMING GROVE — More than a hundred years after the current Beaver Dam Lake dam was built, plans are underway to drain its lake and reconstruct the dam to meet federal safety standards and deal with some stability concerns.

Hema Easley

BLOOMING GROVE — More than a hundred years after the current Beaver Dam Lake dam was built, plans are underway to drain its lake and reconstruct the dam to meet federal safety standards and deal with some stability concerns.

Lawrence Rossini, chairman of the Beaver Dam Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District, said the lake likely would be drained in the fall, after which dismantling of the 36-foot-high structure would begin.

Construction would start in late 2014 or early 2015, he said.

"It's like any structure. You have to keep it up," said Rossini. "Federal safety standards have changed, and owners are required to keep up."

The dam is built at the 164-acre Beaver Dam Lake, which was created in the 1870s, and it straddles the towns of Blooming Grove, New Windsor and Cornwall.

It is owned by Orange County but maintained by the Beaver Dam Lake District, made up of nearly 800 property owners who live around the body of water.

Homeowners bear all costs for maintenance of the lake and upkeep of the dam, including salaries for a handful of district employees.

Because they pay for it, only lake district members have access to the lake for swimming, boating and fishing.

Work on the project would start after a public information session is conducted in late August or early September, and after a public hearing by the county Legislature to authorize bonding for the project. Approval by the state Comptroller's Office is also needed.

A focus of the project is making structural changes to the dam design and increasing capacity of the spillways, which allow water to pass through.

Because the original construction design of the dam is not available, officials have no way of knowing if it will slip, slide or tip under severe flood conditions.

The dam normally holds 500 million gallons of water, but that number could rise dramatically under flood conditions, potentially causing the dam to fail.

While the lake district and the county are still working to determine the cost of the dam upgrades, Rossini said it would run into several million dollars.

A 30-year bond will be paid off by additional taxing of the 800 homeowners, Rossini said.

Not all residents are happy with the plan. Rossini said concerns have centered on the fate of the fish in the lake, prospects of a dry lake bed for a few years, and whether such a project is needed.

"We had Irene and Sandy, and the dam held up pretty well," said Mike Uricks, who has lived near the lake since 1987. "I don't know how urgent it is to fix the dam."

Robert Eichner, 14, who comes to fish at the lake three or four times a week, didn't have good words for the plan, either.

"It's going to mess everything up," said Eichner as he threw a line into the lake. "It's going to mess up the fish and the ecosystem of the lake."